Lenny Kravitz says he's not black enough for BET
- Thread starter Elim Garak
- Start date
Its either you gotta be hood to get in those circles of 'real' black people in those ratchet clubs, or being the token breh that dates PAAGs and PAWGs being yourself
Wasn't their fault though. The media started pushing that gangsta rap heavy and started fading out all other subgenres of hip-hop.
Their's a lane for that music (as long as there's substance), but we need balance. We need a De La Soul, Pharcyde, and Public Enemy for every Wu, Geto Boys, and 3-6 Mafia.
Space Cowboy
Allahu Akbar
It's not just hood.Its either you gotta be hood to get in those circles of 'real' black people in those ratchet clubs, or being the token breh that dates PAAGs and PAWGs being yourself
These days every black artist is on the victimization shyt. I'm a photographer. I know that if I see a black photog I just know I'm going to see some identity politics shyt in it. Political protests and shyt. nikkas these days make art chains on their heads and wrists, enslaved to their own mechanations and self victimization. So much modern black art is about the politics of blackness rather than art that just happens to feature black people. Look at black art the past few years. Stuff like Lovecraft Country try to make the black existence into something pathetic. As if just living life as a black person is scary in itself. I call it "black bullshyt." An artist that can't articulate life without race coming into it probably isn't an artist. By treating blackness as the main topic of their entertainment they make black as abnormal rather than normal. There's more to black people than our skin. This is the slavery I speak of. The black art and TV shows and movies of the 80's and early 90's were aspirational because they showed black people from diverse bakground.
Something like The Last Dragon could not be made today because it treats black as normal. Black isn't even brought up. It's just something that normalizes black people rather than black politics. This is why I'm fukking with Peele and some of the projects I'm seeing from Kid Cudi. They treat black as normal in the same spirit as The Wiz, Purple Rain, Class Act, Last Dragon, Cosby show, Hous Party, Fresh Prince, Martin, Waynehead, New Jack City, Boomerang, Coming to America, Booty Call, In Living Colour, Proud Family, Major Payne. This and more normalized black people in art far more than the modern political clap trap of black bullshyt and self victimization.
There's more to black people than black pain and the people deserve to see that shyt.
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Space Cowboy
Allahu Akbar
By the way I'm not saying we shouldn't have black art that speaks on struggle. The point is when that's all that's spoken. It infantilizes the black experience into something that is not aspirational. Stuff like Bebe's Kids spoke on the struggle but wasn't ABOUT solely the struggle.
This is why Andre's album is such a massive boon for black arts. It also exposes the crabs for who they are because how dare Andre not rap and do whatever the fukk he wants as a black artist? Nah, you have to make stuff that we approve. But it's also showing people there's more to our art than what people say we have to make and that's true freedom. Andre is a truly unshackled brother.
This is why Andre's album is such a massive boon for black arts. It also exposes the crabs for who they are because how dare Andre not rap and do whatever the fukk he wants as a black artist? Nah, you have to make stuff that we approve. But it's also showing people there's more to our art than what people say we have to make and that's true freedom. Andre is a truly unshackled brother.
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2 Up 2 Down
Superstar
Well the point is he doesn't feel like it he didn't some kind of accolade from black music outlets for what he accomplished in music. What's race baiting about it? It opens the conversation to how we place and/or treat some black musicians that create music outside of the rap and r&b.
The history of it post 1991 isn't a very good one, and hence why people deny participating in the pigeon-holing of black music.
He would have had to change his style.
I don’t know why you guys are fronting like his
Music would have been in rotation on bet like that
Knicksman20
Superstar
This was played on BET bro; I saw it myself back in the day.......Lenny would not have had to change a thing about his style lol. If he really wanted to be marketed on BET, he would've had his team make it happen. He was content to get pushed & accepted by whites back in the 80's/90's. He's trying to rewrite things after the fact. And I like Lenny's music too
He would have had to change his style for it to get rotation. I’m sure bet played his all American video sometimes but it was not popular like that
The War Report
NewNewYork
I think the show Insecure does that really well.
2 Up 2 Down
Superstar
They got play on BET because of the Arsenio Hall performance, and it was still early enough in BET as a station where they weren't only r&b/rap
Space Cowboy
Allahu Akbar
What other examples of black rock did bet play? What other Living Colour did they play besides Cult of Personality?
get these nets
Veteran
I don't think this has much to do with Blackness. I think it's more about the genre of music he creates versus the formats that BET airs and promotes. BET rose financially by catering to Black youth market, and for the past 40 years, that's been driven by Hip Hop. Non-Black youth market followed the same music increasingly over the decades.
The offshoot BET channels cater to fans of Gospel, Jazz, R&B, etc
I posted an interview of the guitarist from Rock Box , Eddie Martinez, a few weeks ago. I followed it up with a mini doc about the song. It featured the artists and handlers. Saying the pairing was done to expand their audience.
www.thecoli.com
In that era, some artists leaning into Rock N Roll did so deliberately to get on MTV(and mainstream top 40 radio). The argument MTV used for not playing Black artists was that it was essentially the video version of a Rock format radio station.
Even MJ coming off the success of Off the Wall, had rock music and guitar solo on Beat It (from guitarist from mega popular Rock band, Eddie Van Halen) on Thriller.
I've said in this thread that much like MTV had their format, BET has Black youth audience....and over the past 40 years...that means R&B, dance, and hip hop. Rock acts had to do collabos with artists from those genres to get BET burn.
Teddy Riley did a collabo with Blackstreet, Fishbone, and Dirty. Song got burn, and might have been the only time Fishbone was on that network. Song helped all the acts get airplay to different audience. Didn't remember Slash on the record, but just saw him in the video
The offshoot BET channels cater to fans of Gospel, Jazz, R&B, etc
I posted an interview of the guitarist from Rock Box , Eddie Martinez, a few weeks ago. I followed it up with a mini doc about the song. It featured the artists and handlers. Saying the pairing was done to expand their audience.
Guitarist Eddie Martinez breaks down his iconic parts on RUN DMC's Rock Box & King of Rock
Eddie Martinez Breaks Down his Iconic Parts for Run-DMC Vertex Effects Jun 21, 2023 Eddie Martinez is the most influential Hip Hop guitarist EVER. Having recorded guitar on RUN-D.M.C.'s hits "Rock Box" and "King of Rock", Eddie is responsible for introducing electric guitar into the hip hop...
www.thecoli.com
In that era, some artists leaning into Rock N Roll did so deliberately to get on MTV(and mainstream top 40 radio). The argument MTV used for not playing Black artists was that it was essentially the video version of a Rock format radio station.
Even MJ coming off the success of Off the Wall, had rock music and guitar solo on Beat It (from guitarist from mega popular Rock band, Eddie Van Halen) on Thriller.
I've said in this thread that much like MTV had their format, BET has Black youth audience....and over the past 40 years...that means R&B, dance, and hip hop. Rock acts had to do collabos with artists from those genres to get BET burn.
Teddy Riley did a collabo with Blackstreet, Fishbone, and Dirty. Song got burn, and might have been the only time Fishbone was on that network. Song helped all the acts get airplay to different audience. Didn't remember Slash on the record, but just saw him in the video
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